What does "in" do?


 
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# 1  
Old 06-01-2013
What does "in" do?

Code:
select varname in opt1 opt2...optN
do
   case $varname in
      opt1)  command1;;
      opt2)  command2;;
      optN)  commandN;;
   esac
done



Looking at this skeleton for a select statement, I am baffled as to what exactly "in" does. Does it pass a reference off from the first variable to the second?

I apologize for such a beginner question.

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 06-01-2013 at 06:18 AM.. Reason: code tags
# 2  
Old 06-01-2013
It is part of the select syntax and it denotes the list of possibilities for the select statement. In this case there are two options (it is similar to how "in" in a for statement works)

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 06-01-2013 at 06:32 AM..
# 3  
Old 06-01-2013
in is a reserved word that have a special meaning to shell.

Below are few examples of compound commands where in is used:
Code:
for name [ [ in [ word ... ] ] ; ] do list ; done

select name [ in word ] ; do list ; done

case word in [ [(] pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac

In first 2 examples, words following in is expanded, generating a list of items.

In case command, first word is expanded and matched against pattern.
 
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